Saturday, 29 March 2014

Pound pubby

It was reported this week that, after having successfully trialled the concept, a company was planning to roll out its Pound Pub concept across the North of England. Basically these are no-frills, wet-led pubs where a half of standard bitter or lager goes for a quid, and a pint for a mere £1.50. The stated aim is to attract daytime drinkers who might in the past have frequented working men’s clubs. Sky TV is conspicuous by its absence.

Not surprisingly, the anti-drink lobby were up in arms, claiming that it was irresponsible marketing targeting the most vulnerable in society. Funny that, when a pint at £1.50 is about 70p a unit, well above their proposed minimum alcohol price. This gives further credence to the intention – set out in the Sheffield University research that is used to support minimum pricing – of having differential minimum prices for the on- and off-trades. And I don’t see them picketing Wetherspoon’s and Sam Smith’s pubs.

Obviously those two operators do good business from offering prices conspicuously lower than most of the competition, but their establishments also tend to have a reasonable level of creature comforts and, particularly with Sam’s, a kind of camaraderie that produces a distinctive pubby buzz. A pub where cheapness is the only attraction is unlikely to attract many punters and also risks being a magnet for the kind of people whose company you might prefer to avoid. So time will tell whether this proves to be a successful business concept.

If it does take off, as with the widely-reported rise of micropubs, it might indicate that there is a latent and unsatisfied demand for old-fashioned drink-and-chat pubs that don’t succumb to the multiple temptations of loud music, screaming kids, TV football and wall-to-wall dining.

Of course, there is one rather obvious way in which the trade of small, no-frills, wet-led pubs could be dramatically revived. What a pity the government continues to turn a deaf ear.

Incidentally, I love the description of micropubs in Zythophile’s blogpost that I linked to as “five grumpy old men in a 10ft square space”.

I refuse to believe that worthyupstanding beer loving Englishmenstill frequent Chapels of Rest runby joints which seem to have a far from healthy interest in kiddies changing rooms and geriatrics throwing up unchewed burgers,not to mention the huggies disposal bin near the condiments table.

The Arden Arms in Stockport had a long-serving landlord (I think called Jack) under whose stewardship it was described as playing "The Light Programme" at subdued volume. Not sure the modern-day Radio 2 would qualify, though.

In the last two weeks i have been in two pubs that were selling halfs of bitter at 95p and £1.00 with lots more visited not much more than that,yes they might not be up to some people standards but they were up to mine.The pubs were in Rotherham and Chesterfield,not Sams or Spoons.

Tim Martin may have a few deadleg boozers but he has managed to detract criticism by running what are by and large orderly houses. You are as likely to see an old couple eating the cheap afternoon fish and chips than the elderly alkies. He attracts a wide set of people.

This does have the appearance of deadleg establishment about it and you can see why local residents might take issue with a place with the sole purpose of allowing the workshy to piss away their benefits before causing a problem in the streets.

The puritans do like to moan about booze being the destruction of the poor and all that.

"Had to go through Atherton on Saturday, so I popped into the Pound Pub to see what it was like – and the place is AWFUL !

"The economies they have made to keep the prices down obviously include not spending any money at all on refurbishment – the place nicks a lick of paint, some polish and new furniture at the very least. Another economy appears to not bother signposting the toilets – the gents turned out to be through three doors, all of which were completely unmarked !

"As for the beers, well since funding doesn’t seem to stretch to pump clips, you have to guess what is available from the shape of the dispenser !! There were 4 handpumps, three of which were out of use, and which had a crudely hand-written note “Wells & Young 4.3%, £2.20 per pint”. Theakstons was advertised (outside the pub), but that turned out to be keg mild.

"To get away quickly I asked for a half of Fosters – but was served a pint !

"One thing the budget does stretch to is satellite TV which was showing the absolutely crucial match of Spurs v West Ham. The place was reasonably full, but hardly anyone was watching.

"I still think the name is great, and the concept is good, but they will have to do a lot better than this if they want to make a success of it!"

Sounds utterly shite - I'll stick to Sam Smith's thank you very much. And doesn't even have the saving grace of no Sky TV.

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Doghouse is a quarterly print magazine about British pubs: a love-letter to bar stools and fixed settles: discovering & celebrating history, architecture, stories from the bar, the mystery of the cellars below and the ghosts that rattle around upstairs.

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This is not a beer blog. It's a view of life from the saloon bar, not entirely about the saloon bar - which of course is a metaphorical place as well as a physical one. It is as much about political correctness and the erosion of lifestyle freedom as it is about pubs and beer. And, while I enjoy cask beer, I don't assume that it is the only alcoholic beverage worth consuming.

I'm a non-smoker, but not an antismoker. I believe the owners of private property should be entitled to choose whether or not smoking is permitted on their premises. If any supporter of pubs still thinks the smoking ban was a remotely good idea, just look around at all the pubs that have closed since 1 July 2007. The smoking ban is what prompted the creation of this blog back then and, while it touches on many other topics, it remains essentially its core theme. However, there remains much to be enjoyed and celebrated in pubs despite the effects of the ban.

I condemn drunken driving, but there is no evidence that driving after consuming a small quantity of alcohol is dangerous, and the campaign to discourage driving even within the British legal limit has been a major cause of the decline of the pub trade in recent years. Reducing the current legal limit - a proposal fortunately rejected by the Coalition government - would lead to the closure of thousands more pubs and would not necessarily save a single life. In my view, this is at least as much a threat to pubs as the smoking ban.

As you will probably gather from reading the blog, I live in Stockport, Cheshire, a thriving town which is definitely not part of Manchester and has one of the finest collections of characterful pubs in the country.

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